June 2012
Dear Fellow FAEP Members,
This second issue of The Practitioner for 2012 marks the halfway point of our year. The Practitioner has become a quarterly publication. We have made this change in order to increase the distribution and quality of The Practitioner. More than 35 percent of our membership is from outside the state of Florida and reaching out to each of our members meant increasing distribution nationwide. This current issue of The Practitioner has a lameness and imaging theme that I think many of you will appreciate reading.
This issue of The Practitioner also marks the halfway point of my tenure as council president and I have some thoughts to share with you. The continuing education landscape for equine practitioners in this country has changed since the FAEP was founded in 2005. Many more opportunities to fulfill CE requirements have become available over the last seven years. The FAEP Council continuously questions and discusses how much CE is appropriate? How many events should we sponsor? Should we do wet labs on a regular basis? How can we best meet the CE needs of our members as well as represent their legislative interests in Tallahassee?
This year, we have chosen to offer two conferences because we believe that more is not necessarily better. As such, we will continue to offer the foot symposium on an every-other-year basis.
The name of our flagship conference in the fall of every year is the “Promoting Excellence” symposium. This name was not chosen by accident. We believe that pursuing excellence is an attitude and that our mission to promote excellence via high quality CE is our responsibility. At each event that we have sponsored in the last seven years, we have asked for and received feedback from the attendees about the speakers, the venue, the dates and the timing of events. Our current and future schedule is a direct result of this feedback. Our organization has evolved and exists to better serve your needs. The FAEP Council has recently completed the finishing touches on our 8thAnnual Promoting Excellence Symposium that will be held at the Waldorf Astoria Naples, FL from October 11-14. (Complete details regarding this symposium are found on pages 13-19 of this issue.)
The second conference, the 50th Annual Ocala Equine Conference, will be held from November16-19. Dr. Barry David has arranged an excellent group of speakers (Drs. Anthony Blikslager, Jack Easley, Rob Mackay, Virginia Reef, and Tom Yarborough) to present topics in medicine, surgery and dentistry. Additionally, we are offering a dentistry wet lab that Dr. Easley has agreed to facilitate. This conference looks to be another very good opportunity to fulfill any CE requirements that you may need at the end of the year. Details of this conference will be highlighted in the next issue of The Practitioner.
We hope to see you in Naples and/or Ocala this year!
Sincerely,
Greg BonenClark, DVM, Diplomate ACVS
2012 FAEP Council President